DC Teases A Death In The Bat-Family In ‘Batman Incorporated’ #8

After more than six years writing the adventures of Batman, it was doubtful that the climax of Morrison's run was going to end without some casualties. Now, DC is prominently teasing the outright death of a character in this week's release of Batman Inc. You can see who it is after the jump, and SPOILER ALERT, obviously.According to DC's The Source, Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul's son Damien Wayne, the most recent youth to take up the Robin mantle, will be going on up to the great birdcage in the sky come this Wednesday in Batman Inc #8, featuring art from Chris Burnham and Jason Marsters. Damian was originally created by Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert in their "Batman and Son" story arc, playing off of the long out of continuity original story that introduced the idea of Batman and one of his greatest foe's daughter having a son, Son of the Demon, by Mike W. Barr, and Jerry Bingham.

Morrison and Kubert's introduction of Damien proved to be enormously popular, and even ended up swaying Morrison from his original plan to kill him off in an earlier storyline. It seems, though, that with the end of his run coming up, Morrison's gone back to his original plan. On the DC comics blog, Morrison posted an essay about the end of his run, thanking his contributors and acknowledging some of the themes he's woven into the story. Morrison also mentioned the timeless state of superheroes, saying that:

"In many ways this has been Damian's story as much as it has been the story of Bruce Wayne and it's a story that had its end planned a long time ago - for what son could ever hope to replace a father like Batman, who never dies?"

Still, considering it was the same writer that "killed off" Batman a few years ago, there's reason to believe that the full story will involve more than just a straightforward death of the character. As of release, there's no information yet on how the event will figure on the other title Damian stars in, Batman and Robin, written by Peter Tomasi, with art by Patrick Gleason and Mick Gray.